I purchased this craft kit for KLS:
Here’s the contents:
Here she is making it:
The walls are mortared and left to set:
Emi was very interested in the frosting, so we had to store it off the table while it was setting 🙂
The next step was to add detail via the black frosting:
All told it took KLS about 2 hours to make. Applying the decorations was the hardest and longest part. Here’s the finished product:
A detail shot of the decorations:
She did a great job didn’t she!
We went to a bigger and better fair this past Saturday! The Dutchess County Fair to be precise.
That’s KLS with a prized turkey. It was for sale!
We saw many, many animals, such as this lovely duck…
A baby kangaroo…
And even camels!
The animals were all quite friendly, with the exception of a savage fowl that big my finger! Here’s the criminal:
If she wasn’t so cute I would have roasted her!
Speaking of food, I’ll shamefully admit I ate a gyro and a plate of fries at 10:30…
And then only a couple of hours later had a ‘Pluto pup’ (to use the Oz vernacular):
Don’t let those smiles fool you, because not ten minutes later I looked like this:
KLS enjoyed her Greek vegetarian platter, even though she could hardly eat it all!
Of course we saw the other fair attractions, such as the produce and flowers and farm equipment and – one of my favourites – the art!
This ‘painting’ made of flowers and plants was extremely impressive:
But you all know what I wanted to see most don’t you? Yes, the rides!
Sadly my gluttony had ruined me and I was too green to consider riding any…
This didn’t stop me admiring them just long enough to bore KLS! This one in particular I’d never seen before and was quite taken with:
Unusually (for us) we made quite a lot of purchases at the fair. But those are mostly Christmas gifts and will remain secret 😉
It was a fun day, and a good end to the summer!
I’ve been dealing with some acute homesickness these past few days, which has been difficult. I tried several things to snap out of it, mostly with little success. And then I realized I should have paid more attention to a certain recent marketing blitz, since the solution was only a walk away from home. What is this solution I speak of? A Happy Meal!
It had been many years since I’ve eaten McDonalds; even longer since I’d eaten it in America. It was with no small amount of curiosity that I ordered my lunch and handed the exotically attractive cashier my $2.15. Such was my giddy anticipation that I wasn’t even offended by the weird look she gave me when I asked for “no ice” in my soda.
I sat equidistant from the army of screeching children and the drooling geriatric and tried to suppress my excitement as I opened the paper bag my food was presented in. Here’s what it looked like:
Have you ever seen such a fine collection of cuisine for only $2.15?!? A few immediate observations:
1) Happy Meals now come with apple slices as standard. I wonder if they do this to appease local laws?
2) The Happy Meal fry portion size has shrunk considerably.
3) Caloric content is now written on the packaging itself (the above is 365 Calories in total).
As delicious as this looks, the smell was even better. In particular, the effect of fat molecules subliming from the fries and directly infusing into my bloodstream via my nostrils was… beyond words!
Let’s eat shall we? Here was my ‘hamburger’:
Deceptively simple isn’t it. But a treasure of taste is to be found between the buns:
Wonderful! Forget the (single) pickle, the strange sauces and the mysterious onions. The true success of this burger came from the seductively artificial texture and taste. As I sat chewing, gazing distantly at the view of an industrial wastebin out the window, I became acutely aware of the way the plasticine taste of the meat patty combined with the hint of rubber texture in the bun and created a new sensation in my mouth that was revolutionary and even challenging and seemed to herald the future of food. I watched an evil child hiss demoniacally while he destroyed his Happy Meal toy, and once again marveled at how McDonalds could deliver such an experience for so little cost.
There were 22 fries in my meal, with an average length of about 4.5 cm. That’s about a meter of potato, which is more than enough for a healthy individual like me. They were delicious of course, so much so I didn’t quietly judge the large man that sat near me and started eating two large fries. If only I had his gusto, I thought! But then he didn’t have my apple slices, and couldn’t enjoy the crisp, chemical taste of the fresh apples, almost certainly peeled and packaged this morning. I was delighted.
All things considered it was an interesting and challenging meal, and one that this supertaster would not hesitate to recommend to those that seek to explore the limits of cuisine (as I do). Of course I experienced stomach cramps as I walked home, but I think you would agree that fifteen minutes of agony discomfort were certainly worth it.
And what of the toy?
It’s a Pokemon X combo of a wonderful plastic thing with extremely high play value and a undoubtedly very powerful card for the Pokemon TCG. Highly collectible, these toys will be sealed inside a box and then placed in another box in my attic and then auctioned for many dollars decades from now. Or maybe thrown away.
And what of my goal? Did the bold marketing claim work, and was this indeed a meal that left my happy? For reasons I hope are obvious in this review, I think I would have to say that yes, yes it did 😉
Yesterday I spent the morning catching up with my old friend Kirsten. Much laughter ensued 🙂
Later in the day Bernard and I visited Pizza and Pinball, the restaurant not too far from where mum and dad live.
Of all the games I played, Judge Dredd may have been best. But the one above – an ‘indie’ pinball made in Newcastle in 2013 – was certainly the most memorable. I think I’ll have to go and play it again before I leave.
Here’s what Bernard had for dinner: a fish salad sandwich (with beetroot):
Here’s his five word review: “It was good, no, ok”.
I gave dad my phone and he took a few snaps. Here’s his best selfie:
And a shot of Bernard and I watching the cricket while eating ice blocks:
Bernard’s working hard on our game. Later today I plan to start the graphics and ‘monster design’. We regularly talk about the core mechanics and the scoring. It will be playable online when complete. Here’s a code preview:
It’s going to be awesome!
Today we lazed around a bit and went shopping for hours. At Charlestown Square mall, Bernard and I discovered the Timezone arcade had actually become decent:
During the several hours we spent between two malls, Bernard managed to beat his five-patty record set yesterday and eat two Oporto Bondi Triple Burgers! That’s six chicken breast patties in one day! Since I know there are skeptics among you, here’s photographic proof.
Two different malls, two Oporto meals, same afternoon. Bernard has demonstrated these past three days that man can live on Oporto alone. My hat is tipped!
What else happened today? I spent some time getting the two iPads set up (one each for mum and dad). I bought a shirt and a Dalek. Bernard started coding our game (that you’ll be able to play via this blog) and I had a mini allergic attack after eating a wiz-fizz cone lolly.
And at the end of the day, cards:
